In May I warned Barron's readers in this column that rice prices were set to surge. And they did, rising 9% on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, to more than $16.30 per hundredweight in early August from just shy of $15 three months earlier. Prices have retreated since, to around $15 recently. But that doesn't mean the rally is done.
Analysts say the market is poised for a price surge that could take rice even higher, with futures prices exceeding $20. Read more here.
Genius physicist
Albert Einstein famously commented that insanity is defined as doing the
same thing over again and expecting a different result. It’s an idea that Congress needs to wake up to
More
precisely, it needs to stop playing chicken with its fiscal decisions.
The last few years we’ve seen nothing but dysfunction. Remember the
debt ceiling debate last year? That was
when our elected officials waited until the very last minute to come to a
decision.
That sort of behavior isn’t doing us as a country any favors. Quite frankly it’s nuts.
It isn’t just me that thinks so. Ratings agency Moody’s just scolded Congress. The firm that determines the riskiness of a borrower said Tuesday the U.S. risks losing its coveted triple-A rating if Congress
doesn’t shape up. Specifically it pointed to the pending tax increases we face starting in January if the government doesn’t act swiftly and prudently.
Why does what Moody’s say matter to you? If the U.S. loses its
triple-A rating, it will have to pay more to borrow. If it pays more then you will also, for everything from credit cards and car loans to mortgages.
That’s something you need to think about when you go to the polls in a little less than eight weeks.
How much yield you earn from a fund is important. But calculating it can be tricky.
In basic terms, a fund's yield is whatever the dividend or interest
payment is divided by the current price. If the annual dividend is $1
and the price of the fund is $20, then the yield is 5%.
But as with most things, it's rarely that simple. That's because fund
investments and payouts change over time. So, savvy investors should
look at different ways of measuring yield. In simple terms, here's what
you need to understand. See original post here.
